The Virtual Stage: Birmingham Royal Ballet's Digital Project

The Virtual Stage: Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Digital Project

In collaboration with Canon and RiVR, Birmingham Royal Ballet has begun producing content for its technology focused project, The Virtual Stage.

The principal objectives are to create innovative, immersive, and accessible experiences that will help expand the ballet company‘s global reach and “bring ballet to life in new ways”.

"I am absolutely thrilled that we have launched Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Virtual Stage, becoming one of the first ballet companies in the world to embrace immersive technology and unlock the potential it holds. I am particularly excited about the possibilities this work has for reaching younger and new audiences across the globe, bringing them up close to classical ballet in a way that, until recently, has not been possible. Virtual Stage is another example of BRB’s commitment to pushing boundaries and keeping ballet fresh and relevant for future generations in this digital age. Thank you to Bloomberg Philanthropies for making this happen as part of the Digital Accelerator Programme"

Carlos Acosta

Artistic Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet

The Virtual Stage

Tom Rogers, Creative Digital Producer at Birmingham Royal Ballet, is working closely alongside Clive Booth (Photographer, filmmaker and Canon Ambassador), Mark Fensome (European Product Professional at Canon), and Brad Woodward (Managing Director at RIVR) to explore the uses of 3D Mapping, Augmented and Virtual Reality and Motion Capture technologies.

This has resulted in an expansion of the BRB’s house equipment and specialty training programs in order to produce experiences such as Swan Lake VR which will have its premiere tour throughout West Midland Schools.

“As a photographer and filmmaker, I’m always looking for new and meaningful ways to tell a story and now for the first time I can immerse an audience quite literally inside the narrative.
In Swan, Regan Hutsall shares her journey from a childhood dream to finally becoming a ballerina. This project brings dance to those who wouldn’t normally be able to visit live theatre and is a wonderful example of technology used for good.”- Clive Booth

Other projects available on The Virtual Stage are Freefall VR and NutcrackAR.

Freefall, BRB’s company of dancers with learning disabilities, will also have its own VR experience and a VR Documentary, created by RiVR, of BRB’s famous production of The Nutcracker will both be made available to specialist schools and through Birmingham Open Media’s (BOM) network of neuro-divergent programs.

Also housed on The Virtual Stage. Freefall VR will also be ‘shown’ at a gala event to mark 21 years of Freefall Dance Company.

NutcrackAR – an AR campaign taking the 12 days of Christmas to locations around the city. The trail will go live in November at a Nutcracker event at the Bullring.

Each day of the countdown to opening night will highlight a different AR sight with each partner venue through a dedicated social media campaign.

After opening night on the 17th November, all objects will be placed in and around Hippodrome square for the duration of the Nutcracker run and festive season. Content will be accessed through posters presented in various formats housing unique QR codes with AR content, descriptive text and voiceover plus links to ticketing information.